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Sports

There are only 5 undefeated teams left in Division 1-A football and Penn State is not one of them. The 5 perfect records belong to Alabama (10-0), Texas Tech (10-0), Boise State (9-0), Utah (10-0) and Ball State (9-0).

Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions reached 9-0 and moved up to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll before traveling to Iowa on Saturday (11-8-08) and losing to the Hawkeyes 24-23 on a field goal. of 31 yards. with a second left.

Daniel Murray, who hadn’t made a field goal since Iowa’s season opener and had lost his job to a freshman, finally got a second chance. Murray had handled the kickoff duties, but when it came to windy playing conditions and the need for experience, coach Kirk Ferentz turned to Murray.

Murray drilled him down the middle and the icy Iowa fans went wild, flooding the field with wild excitement. It happened because Penn State blew a 9-point lead in the 4th quarter. Iowa won the fourth quarter 10-0. The Hawkeyes were helped by Shonn Greene’s 117 rushing yards and 2 TDs, and Ricky Stanzi’s 15-of-25 passing for 171 yards.

The victory was Iowa’s biggest in years, and their first against a Top 5 team since 1990. The Hawkeyes improved their record to 6-4, becoming bowl eligible. The Hawkeyes’ 4 losses this year have come by a total of 12 points. Last week they lost to Illinois on a 46-yard field goal with 24 seconds remaining. This week they had to win with a field goal in the last second.

Penn State’s chance to compete in the national championship evaporated. The kiss of death for Penn State was the fact that Iowa was not a ranked team and Penn State was playing on the road. The Nittany Lions’ new goals will be a Big Ten title and a berth in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

For the first time this season, all AP Top 25 Poll teams played, with 17 of the 25 teams winning and 5 big wins among winners playing other ranked teams. They included:

No. 1 Alabama on the road over No. 15 LSU in overtime, 27-21, with star quarterback John Parker Wilson scoring on a sneaky 1-yard pass. The Crimson Tide had a chance to win the game in regulation play, but Leigh Tiffin’s 29-yard field goal attempt went low and blocked.

LSU had the first chance in overtime, but even allowed a field goal opportunity as Jarrett Lee threw his fourth interception and Alabama’s Rashad Johnson intercepted it for the third time in the game, who tied a school record in the process. The Tide turned down another field goal attempt, having missed it twice, and Wilson scored on the sneak to give Alabama a berth in the SEC championship game.

No. 2 Texas Tech at home over No. 8 Oklahoma State, 56-20, as the Red Raiders scored touchdowns on 7 straight possessions.

No. 7 Southern Cal at home to No. 21 California, 17-3, in an amazing display of defense. The win was the sixth in a row for the Trojans who have outscored their opponents 231-23 since losing 27-21 as a 25-point favorite at Oregon State. Those are the Trojans, always losing a game to an unranked team, they apparently wake up late in Hollywood.

No. 10 Utah at home over No. 11 Texas Christian in a squeaker, 13-10. Utah had gone 9-0 and moved up to No. 10 by playing one of the weaker schedules west of the Mississippi River. The Utes are in the Mountain West Conference, and if they hadn’t played TCU, they wouldn’t have faced a quality team worth talking about; they still face BYU in their final game.

No. 19 North Carolina at home over No. 22 Georgia Tech, 28-7, scoring 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter.

Twelve other Top 25 teams won against ranked opponents, including:

No. 4 Florida on the road over Vanderbilt, 42-14, as Tim Tebow threw for 3 touchdowns and rushed for 2 more. The Gators clinched the SEC Eastern Division title and will face SEC Western Division title holders Alabama for the SEC Championship.

No. 5 Texas at home over Baylor, 45-21, as Longhorn Colt McCoy threw for 5 TDs and 300 yards. No. 6 Oklahoma on the road over Texas A&M in an easy loss, 66-28. No. 9 Boise State at home over Utah State, 49-14, as Kellen Moore threw for 362 yards and 2 TDs. No. 12 Ohio State on the road over Northwestern, 45-10, as Terrelle Prior threw for 3 scores and Chris “Beanie” Wells added 2 more on the ground.

No. 13 Missouri at home over Kansas State, 41-24, as Jeremy Maclin had 3 TDs and amassed 278 all-purpose yards. No. 14 Georgia on the road over Kentucky, 42-38, getting the go-ahead TD on a pass from Matthew Stafford to AJ Green with 1:54 to play. No. 16 Ball State at home over Northern Illinois 45-14. No. 17 Brigham Young (BYU) at home over a 1-9 41-12 San Diego State team.

No. 18 Michigan State at home over Purdue, 21-7, as Javon Ringer scored twice and the Spartan defense made some excellent third-down stops. No. 24 Florida State at home to Clemson, 41-27, on coach Bobby Bowden’s 79th birthday (yes, the guy’s 79 and still coaching), and following Bowden’s son Tommy’s firing as coach in chief at Clemson last month. No. 25 Pittsburgh at home over Louisville, 41-7, as the Panthers turned 4 Cardinal turnovers into touchdowns.

The 7 losing Top 25 teams, other than No. 3 Penn State, that lost to unranked teams included:

No. 20 West Virginia at home to Cincinnati in overtime 26-23. West Virginia is one of those teams that can’t stand prosperity, they’ve been in and out of the AP Top 25 all season. No. 23 Maryland en route to Virginia Tech, 23-13.

For the 8 losing teams in the AP Top 25 this week, it’s pretty much what legendary coach Lou Holtz said: “When all is said and done, more is said than done.”

When the new AP Top 25 poll came out on Sunday, 4 teams were missing: West Virginia, California, Georgia Tech and Maryland. Replacing them were 2 new teams-No. 22 Cincinnati and No. 23 Oregon State-and 2 returning teams-No. 24 South Carolina (the Gamecocks dropped out of the poll after the first week) and No. 25 Tulsa (the Golden Hurricane came in week 8, was ousted last week, and returned this week).

In other featured games this week:

Boston College at home defeated Notre Dame 17-0 in their annual “Catholic Bowl” game.

An 8-2 West Michigan team from the growing Mid-American Conference hosted and beat Big Ten Illinois, 23-17.

A 4-5 Wyoming team from the Mountain West Conference hosted and beat Tennessee from the Southeastern Conference, 13-7. Could Tennessee sink any lower? Some fans had to read this result THREE times to believe it was true.

Hawaii beat New Mexico State 42-30 to even their record at 5-5 and a win short of bowl eligibility.

East Carolina became bowl eligible with its sixth win, an overtime win over Marshall, 19-16.

That’s all. That’s all. I am out of here. Four more weeks and the regular season is over, then bowl season comes along and some big winners are going to raise a lot of money for their football programs. Some of the bowling games will be great, but we don’t know which ones.

Tours Travel

Predictability and novelty in the classroom: you need a balance of both

admin

May 14, 2023May 14, 2023

Walking through the halls of a school, you can look around the classrooms and you will notice many variations in the atmosphere and the levels of interest and enthusiasm. In some classes there is very little energy. Both the students and the teacher are dragging and listless. In other classes, the noise level is loud and both the students and the teacher seem a bit unsure about what is supposed to be going on. What is the difference between these rooms? The best classes seem to be those that have a balance between routines and fun and unusual activities.

What should be predictable in your classroom? What students need to feel comfortable in their environment. What do you need to have a suitable teaching environment? There are several things that you and your students need to be able to rely on. They need to know that you are prepared with a worthwhile lesson, that you are in control of the classroom at all times, and that you will not embarrass or humiliate them. You also need to be able to count on certain predictable factors from your students every day. You trust your students to be respectful, cooperative, well-behaved, and willing to do whatever you ask. You know this will be the case because you spent time upfront at the beginning of the year training these behaviors.

Isn’t all that predictable stuff boring? No. In order for you to present interesting and engaging lessons, everyone needs to understand your role. Students need to know what you and other students expect of them. The teacher needs to know what the students expect. Lack of predictability in these elements equals chaos. Your classroom management system always runs just below the surface of your classroom. This is what allows students to feel safe enough to participate and take risks.

Where does the novelty fit? Good classroom management allows you to take some risks and trust your students’ ability to meet new challenges. You can totally change your classroom and know that your students will adapt quickly.

With younger children, novelty can be scary (which is why so many toddlers cry when they see Santa Claus or a clown), so think your lesson through. Make sure they feel safe before you throw them a curveball with something new. You will also need to spend time framing the activity so they are prepared.

Teenagers, on the other hand, crave novelty. One of the reasons school bores them is that they are held back by the rote and predictable nature of many of their classes. Doing something unexpected or very different from his normal style will get his attention. Remember that you cannot be new all the time. If novelty exists all the time, it is no longer novelty!

Ideally, your classroom should be a mix of the expected and the unexpected. If there is too much predictability, students will get bored. If there is too much unpredictability, students will not be able to relax and chaos can ensue. To brainstorm novelty ideas, think like a student when looking at your lesson plan. If you were a student in this class, what kinds of things would you expect the teacher to do? What would make it fun for you? Thinking like a kid can help you create great lesson plans! Often it’s just in presentation.

Talking about the Roman Colosseum, I took my class to the track field. I told them the measurements of that field and the height of the stands. Then I gave them the dimensions of the Colosseum and we put people in different areas to show the size. This had several benefits. The students did some exercise that increases their cognitive functioning. They were doing something different by going out into the street. They were able to visualize how big the Colosseum really was by seeing the size compared to the athletic field. This is not a transcendental activity, but it qualifies as novel.

Novelty just means doing something different from time to time. Something that will catch children off guard. If they never really know what you’re going to do next, they’ll pay much more attention in class. Predictability for safety, novelty for fun and excitement. As Martha Stewart would say, “It’s a good thing!”